Vientiane Residents Urged to Use Public Buses

(KPL) Authorities of Vientiane Capital State Bus Enterprise and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on March 17 called on Vientiane residents to use public buses instead of using personal cars to reduce traffic congestion.

JCIA has continued its support for the Project to Enhance the Capacity of Vientiane Capital State Bus Enterprise (PECVCSBE) Phase II (August 2016 to August 2019).

Theimplementation of the PECVCSBE phase I started in 2012 and was completed in 2015 aiming to provide better services of city buses and reduce traffic congestion by a modal shift from private vehicles to city buses in Vientiane Capital, the Director of the Vientiane Capital State Bus Enterprise, Mr Khamphoun Taemaelath said at a press conference held in Vientiane Capital on March 17.

The project was funded by the Japanese government through JICA. It’s expected that more Vientiane residents will become confident in public transport services following the introduction of electronic systems, thereby reducing traffic congestion in the capital.

The project team provides technical assistance in terms of management, operations and finance with VCSBE to achieve the project’s purpose. The second phase started in August 2016 and will run through August 2019.

Head of The JICA Project to Enhance the Capacity of Vientiane Capital State Bus Enterprise Phase II Mr Tomohiko Nakamura said at a press conference that the project activities that have been carried out so far include the preparing of pamphlets of student bus passes (SBP) including bus route maps and time tables, promotion of the use of SBP at NUOL and other schools, bus needs surveys and analyses for better bus operations, proposing new bus routes, determining bus stop locations, and proposing a new bus operation system in VCSBE.

Mr Nakamura said that based on the latest survey, it found that it needs to open additional bus routes between the Talat Sao bus station and Wattay Airport in response to the high demand of passengers.